For the past several weeks, Jesus gave instructions and warnings about how challenging it is to follow him. Yet today’s reading gives the opposite impression: “come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest... for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Jesus’ listeners were familiar with the image of a yoke because they were used to harnessing animals to do work in the field or to pull humans in carriages or cargo on wagons. In Judaism, the yoke was also a metaphor for the religious laws spelled out in the Old Testament. Over time, religious leaders (mostly the Pharisees) added to the 613 official written laws, creating an oppressive burden for an ordinary Jewish citizen. Several times in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus, lashed out at the Pharisees for making it almost impossible (especially for poor people, who were the majority of the population) to live by all the rules, and for not lifting a finger to help them.  In contrast, Jesus simplifies all of his religion’s laws into two: love God and love your neighbour as yourself. For people struggling to keep track of hundreds of rules about how to wash your cups and utensils perfectly, what foods can and can’t be on a plate together, what kinds of clothing fibre you could or couldn’t wear, or what you could and couldn’t do on the Sabbath, having only those two laws to follow was easy and light in comparison. Instead of having to worry about whether they were breaking any rules, Jesus’ disciples could judge any decision with the measure of whether an action expressed love for God, self, and neighbour. That was the yoke Jesus was inviting them to carry - not the yoke of the Pharisees who cared more about the letter of the law than the spirit of the law. Questions of the week . . .  What religious rules or laws feel unnecessarily burdensome to you?  Does the idea of judging all of your actions and decisions by the yoke of Jesus bring you relief?

The musings of one of God’s smallest creatures on events in and around the Parish over the past seven days . . . . A few breathing spaces this week around The Presbytery as some of the independent schools start their summer holidays and others begin to enter their final weeks . . . . Our First Eucharist and our Confirmation sacramental programmes for the year came to a conclusion last weekend with Certificates given out at our Sunday morning Masses, we also celebrated the Rite of Welcome for a child who will be Baptised in the middle of July. The new applications for Infant Baptism and First Reconciliation/Eucharist for next year are now both available (instructions elsewhere in this newsletter); Confirmation applications will be available once Fr D gets a date from the diocese/Bishop as to the date of the celebration so he can sort dates for the programme. Following on from Morning Prayer, Mass, and Exposition on Tuesday morning Fr D was off in the car down to the diocesan offices to wear his ‘other hat’ in the Tribunal. He was also very grateful that the temperatures had come down to a more manageable level! Wednesday, after Morning Prayer and Mass, Fr D was able to have a ‘catch-up’ session with Sarah in the Parish Office to help make sure the ‘decks are clear’ before the summer holidays start. He was able to chase up a few minor projects that are coming to fruition and start thinking about new phases for other ongoing projects. He also made a start on his parts of the newsletter for the week - all before sitting in front of the television for the ‘BIG MATCH!’  Once again, after Morning Prayer and Mass on Thursday, Fr D went off in the car to Crawley. As he’d parked up and ‘plugged-in’ the car and entered the building he was asked if he had heard ‘the news?’ Slightly confused Fr D asked “What news?” to be told that whilst he was driving down to Crawley the Holy Father had appointed Fr Stephen Wang, the Rector of the English College in Rome as the sixth Bishop of Arundel and Brighton. At the present time his ordination will be taking place in October at Arundel Cathedral. Whilst he was at the Tribunal, workmen were dealing with a blocked drain at the back of the Parish Centre. When they got into it they found that new plastic pipework (not in a pea shingle bed, as is normally the case), put in when the Parish Centre was constructed had broken underground and roots (and frogs!) had grown in, along, and up a down pipe! Fr D asked the workmen to retrofit pea shingle around the repaired pipework that had been exposed to do the works . . . .

The musings of one of God’s smallest creatures on events in and around the Parish over the past seven days . . . . A very, very busy week in and round The Presbytery as the First Eucharist programme came to it’s fruition last Sunday . . . . On Saturday morning last weekend Fr D spent time in the church with our First Eucharist families rehearsing what was going to take place at the 11.00 Mass on Sunday morning. The children were able to walk through slowly and ask questions where necessary concerning the ‘Big Day.’ They were also able to practice receiving Holy Communion with un-consecrated hosts and wine. Fr D explained to them that they should receive from the chalice on their First Eucharist and then they could choose if they wanted to do so in the future (not surprisingly none of the children liked the taste of the wine and parents laughed when Fr D said ‘long may it be so!’). At the 11.00 Mass the day after the children were wonderfully turned out (Fr D has a thing about the girls looking like meringues and boys dressed as sailors). Our newly confirmed were also present at the Mass - the boys acting as ‘ecclesiastical traffic cops’ to make sure that the families were not inundated whilst the children received communion for the first time. At the end of the Mass the children lined up outside to shake hands with everyone as they left the church, then they joined Fr D in a photo-call for the paparazzi by the hedge outside the Presbytery. Having celebrated Moring Prayer, Mass, and Exposition on Tuesday morning Fr D was off down to the diocesan offices in Crawley to continue work on another couple of cases that he is moving closer to a judgement session. At present the Tribunal has had more applications than they had in the whole of last year (and we’re not even half way through the year!). When he got back home in the late afternoon Fr D had a ‘Teams’ meeting with the ‘Standards and Ethos’ committee of the Bosco Catholic Education Trust. By the time it came to supper he was really ready to eat and stop ‘doing things.’  On Wednesday Fr D celebrated the funeral of a parishioner before the committal at Randalls Park. He then just about had time to come home, and change his shirt before heading off for his monthly lunch with Fr Ruslan (Walton-on-Thames) at a local hostelry. In the latter part of the afternoon he was preparing his parts of the newsletter before having a sandwich and settling down to watch the England match . . . . .